RECOVERY AND EXTRACTION OF HEAVY METAL IONS USING IONIC LIQUID AS GREEN SOLVENT

Ionic liquids are expected to replace conventional organic solvents in organic synthesis, solvent extraction and electrochemistry due to their unique characters such as low volatility, high stability and so on. In this work, N,N,-diethyl-N-methyl-N-(2-methoxyethyl) ammonium bis(trifluoromethansulfonyl)imide was used as an alternative solvent to extract heavy metal ions. As the extracting conditions, the additional effect of 8-hydroxyquinoline (8-HQ) as metal chelating agent into ionic liquids, shaking time and volume ratio were investigated. As extraction efficiency depended on 8-HQ concentration significantly, in order to extract high concentrated metal ions the solubility of 8-HQ into ionic liquid was tested. N,N,-diethyl-N-methyl-N-(2-methoxyethyl) ammonium bis(trifluoromethansulfonyl)imide had good solubility of 8-HQ. Consequently, 5 μmol of copper, zinc, cadmium and manganese could be completely recovered with 100 μl of ionic liquid.